Derek Jeter announced that 2014 will be his last season.
A Major League Baseball executive confirmed Wednesday that Jeter informed the Yankees’ principal owner, Hal Steinbrenner, of his plans to retire.
In a statement that he began by saying thank you, Jeter wrote: “I’ve experienced so many defining moments in my career: winning the World Series as a rookie shortstop, being named the Yankees captain, closing the old and opening the new Yankee Stadium. Through it all I’ve never stopped chasing the next one. I want to finally stop the chase and take in the world.”
I have my doubts about him playing much this season. The ankle injury that ended his 2012 playoff run never healed that well in 2013. He’s back on the field now, but who knows what the strain of real play will do to the foot. Jeter needs just four hits to pass Paul Molitor for ninth on the all-time list, but 120 to catch Carl Yastrzemski, Honus Wagner, and Cap Anson for the sixth spot. That will be much tougher.
I also wonder if he will get the Mariano Rivera treatment. Mariano was that rare ball player who was a great man on and off the field. While Jeter manages his public image very well, no one really knows how much people like him. They certainly respect his accomplishments and leadership, but I’m not sure there will be the outpouring we saw for Rivera outside of New York.
Although he played quite a bit during the steroid era, the taint never landed on the Yankees shortstop. He’ll be an easy first ballot Hall of Famer, as the voters seem to want to lionize players like Derek and Frank Thomas, who appear to have played clean.
Good link about Jeter “managing his public image.”
The castle isn’t too ostentatious!
He’s a party boy; always has been.
Compare Jeter’s digs with Eli Manning’s and you get some idea of what they think is important.
It seems people are somewhat selective in who they perceive as clean. Jeter was never a power hitter so he gets a pass, even though he put up some pretty impressive numbers at age 38 in defiance of age related decline curves.
Thomas played college football and was built like a tank, at a time when steroids were rampant in college football and players in MLB were much smaller except for the Canseco types. Never understood him getting a pass on steroids.
For every player unlucky enough to have been alleged as a user, either outed by another player/trainer or caught up in Balco, there must be 10 times or more players who flew under the radar.
Jeter was a poor defensive SS. He was an above average hitter but if he played 3B nobody would be calling him a HOF’er since he was not an elite hitter. His WAR is inflated by the positional adjustment which gives SS more credit simply because they have more opportunities to make plays.
Derek Jeter: living proof that “overrated” and “extremely well qualified Hall of Famer by historical standards” are not mutually inconsistent concepts.
As for playing 3B, he has hit .312 with well over 3,000 hits (sabermetrics has accomplished a lot in changing how we look at numbers, but those would still resonate with voters)–unless he was a terrible defensive 3B (which might or might not have been the case–we were never going to find out, since the Yankees had no intention of infuriating the Cult of Jeter by making him move to third instead of the vastly better defensive shortstop A-Rod), he still would have made the HoF as a key member of a five time World Champion. Might have had to wait a year or two, though.
I wonder if all these people that opine about his fielding ever watch Yankee games. Makes all the standard plays, slightly above average to his right, below average to his left. But hey,I only watch a 150 games a year for nearly30 years
dch » He can’t make the play in the hole unless he does the jump throw, and will often throw the ball away on that play. Even David Eckstein had the arm to set himself and make an accurate throw on that play.
The numbers over many years say Jeter was a poor shortstop.
Does there have to be a retirement tour every year?
David, he makes the basic plays.and the overwhelming amount of plays are basic plays He has a strong arm and when he gets to stuff, he usually makes the play. He plays heads up and rarely makes mental mistakes.
DCH, Jeter DOES NOT “make the basic plays” at nearly the same rate as practically any other shortstop of his era. This has been extensively documented.
There is a famous Bill James article on Jeter in The Fielding Bible that Dave has linked to here in the past (just Google “derek jeter fielding bill james”). It includes this damning quote: “While virtually no other recognizable name at shortstop had had even one season in which his team had 40 fewer assists by shortstops than expected, Jeter had season after season after season in that category.”